


Shower

by helsinkibaby



Series: Right Beside Me Around Every Turn [13]
Category: The Flying Doctors
Genre: Angst, Community: comment_fic, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 19:34:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13394751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Chris finds caring for her dad is tougher than she thought.





	Shower

**Author's Note:**

> Theme : tv tropes  
> Prompt: any, any, shower of angst

Chris waits until her father is asleep before she leaves the room, tiptoeing to the door lest she wake him, closing the door ever so quietly behind her. Watching him slip away a little bit more every day is harder than she’d thought it was going to be - and, as a doctor, she’d been under no illusions about what she was letting herself in for. She’d thought, though, that because of that knowledge she was prepared for it. Now she knows that she wasn’t. Not even close. 

She can feel the tears rising up in her throat, stinging at the back of her eyes. With enough experience over the last few weeks to know that this signals the onset of a storm of sobs that won’t be denied, she acts quickly. The bathroom is only a few steps down the hall so she’s there in seconds, closing the door firmly behind her. She starts the shower running before she starts to strip off her clothes - even if Dad wakes up, he won’t come in when he hears the water going - and she’s under the hot spray, steam making her hair curl, when the first of the sobs rack her shoulders. 

She lets the tears come, braces her hands against the smooth tile and gives herself over to it completely. She cries for her father, for the pain he’s going through and the pain he still has to face. She cries for herself, for what she’s going through and what it’s going to be like when her dad is gone, when she can’t hear his voice, see his face, listen to his stories any more. She sobs with the guilt of a doctor who can’t save a patient, a girl who can’t save her daddy and she wishes, more than anything she’s ever wished for, that things were different. 

When there are no more tears left and the water has begun to cool, she straightens, pushes her hair back from her face and turns off the shower. Opening the cubicle door, she reaches out to grope for a towel and somehow she’s surprised and yet not surprised when one is handed to her. 

“When did you get home?” she asks, and she can hear her voice is thick from crying. She’s sure her face is red and her eyes are blotchy but Tom doesn’t seem to be worried about her appearance. 

“A few minutes ago.” He drops the hand holding the towel, holds his other hand out to her instead and helps her step onto the bath mat. “I heard the shower, checked on Bill first... I thought I might join you.” That’s said with a crooked smile as he wraps the bath towel - one of the new ones, soft and fluffy and delightfully warm - around her body. His hands land on her shoulders, rubbing gently. “Then I heard you.” 

Chris looks down, shakes her head, suddenly ashamed of herself, of her weakness. “Just one of those-” she begins, but Tom doesn’t let her finish. 

“Don’t.” He shushes her at the same time as he pulls her into his arms. “You don’t have to apologise for anything.” 

His sympathy, his complete understanding, brings fresh tears where she thought she was all cried out and she leans into him, wraps her own arms around his waist. She feels him kiss the top of her head as a drop of water runs down her back and she giggles even through her tears. “I’m going to get you all wet,” she tells him and he huffs a breath of laughter against her hair. 

“I'll dry."


End file.
